


Shadows in the Sunlight

by queenpenthesilea



Category: Captain America (Movies), Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Mythology, BAMF Tony Stark, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Civil War Team Iron Man, F/F, Female Stephen Strange, Female Tony Stark, Genderswap, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Hurt Tony, Hurt Tony Stark, Lesbian Character, Lesbians, Mythology - Freeform, Mythology References, Not always team Cap friendly, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony-centric, Useless Lesbians, and the avengers are sometimes dumbasses, bc of course they are, but theyre also still superheroes, toni and stephanie are goddesses, toni stark and stephanie strange
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-10-05 01:20:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20480603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenpenthesilea/pseuds/queenpenthesilea
Summary: Toni had always known she was different. At first, it was because she was the great Howard Stark’s daughter, the tiny heiress to a giant empire; then, it was because she was a certifiable genius, building her first circuit board at age 4 and creating her first AI at 17; then, it was because she’d fallen in Afghanistan and risen as the Iron Queen, privatizing world peace like it was her birthright.But now? Now she’d wandered into a whole new realm of different, courtesy of an Asgardian trickster picking her little planet to wreak his havoc and the brother who’d come to fetch him. A brother who had called her 'Queen' and behaved like he knew her.A brother who might know more of her than she knew of herself.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Guiding of Death](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14910729) by [RayShippouUchiha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RayShippouUchiha/pseuds/RayShippouUchiha). 

> So this is a Hades/Persephone AU inspired by RayShippouUchiha's absolutely _amazing_ work, The Guiding of Death. I went a slightly different direction with this one than Ray did, so I hope you guys like it.
> 
> YES I REALIZE I HAVE A MILLION OTHER UNFINISHED FICS IM SO SORRY. Just working with what inspires me from moment to moment. D:
> 
> Heads up for gender-swaps for both Tony --> Toni and Stephen --> Stephanie. I haven't seen many works w the main characters being lesbians in this fandom and honestly? As a wlw? Felt like writing a wlw fic. So here we are.
> 
> Side note, for anyone who keeps getting updates on this work, I'm sorry - I keep writing while semi-delirious from sleep dep, and then half-remember mistakes while I'm fully awake and go back to fix them. Soooo sorry if y'all are getting shit tons of notifications, I'm self-beta'ing periodically from random realizations that I Fucked Up Real Bad while writing when half-asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another note that yeah I changed the title of this, the old one just didn't feel like it fit with where I'm wanting to go with this

Toni had always known she was different. At first, it was because she was the great Howard Stark’s daughter, the tiny heiress to a giant empire; then, it was because she was a certifiable genius, building her first circuit board at age 4 and creating her first AI at 17; then, it was because she’d fallen in Afghanistan and risen as the Iron Queen, privatizing world peace like it was her birthright. 

But now? Now she’d wandered into a whole new realm of different, courtesy of an Asgardian trickster picking her little planet to wreak his havoc and the brother who’d come to fetch him.

_Ugh, Asgardians_, Toni thought with no small degree of disgust, staring after where the big blond one had seized Loki and flown off from their jet. She was agnostic, so dealing with a couple of gods should _really_ not be her problem. Rogers was saying something behind her, but she ignored him, striding to the edge of the plane.

“Wait, we need a plan of attack,” Rogers called after her, and Toni rolled her eyes in her suit. Did he not understand that every second they wasted, Loki and the blond god were getting further and further away? There was no sense in having a plan of attack if the duo was out of their reach.

“I have a plan – attack,” she called back flippantly, shooting off. It wasn’t hard to locate them with JARVIS tracking energy signatures. The two gods put off energy like dying stars, and Toni dove when she narrowed in on them, knocking into the blond guy until he landed a few hundred feet away, then following and touching down in front of him. She retracted the helmet, pinning him with an unimpressed glare, dark waves streaming behind her.

“Hi, yeah, we don’t know each other, but I have one primary rule: don’t touch my stuff,” Toni said irreverently, crossing her arms and cocking an eyebrow. The blond Asgardian pushed himself to his feet, face turning towards her and mouth opening angrily – only to stop, expression changing into one of complete shock.

“Hades. I did not expect to find you reincarnated again on Midgard,” he said, stunned, and Toni’s brow furrowed.

“What?”

“My apologies for having intruded on your territory, dear Queen,” the blond god continued, tone genuinely remorseful as he sank into a deep bow. Toni stared, completely bemused.

“Yeah so the Iron Queen thing doesn’t make me an actual queen,” she felt compelled to clarify as the Asgardian straightened, and he gave her a strange look, then stared a bit harder at her. Toni felt the disconcerting urge to squirm under his scrutiny, a strange feeling for her since she’d been stared at by nearly everyone she’d ever met since she was a child and had long since lost any discomfort in being under inspection.

“You have not come into your aspect yet,” the god said as though coming to some sort of extreme realization.

“I’m sorry, are we having the same conversation here? Because I have to admit I have no clue what’s going on, and that’s a rare thing for me,” Toni said crossly, starting to get frustrated. A crashing sound came from the forest before the god could answer, and Toni held in an eye roll at the sight of Rogers clomping in from the forest, shield in hand like it had any chance against a god. He drew up short at the sight of Toni and the Asgardian standing apart from each other, clearly having not come to blows.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded.

“Point Break over there is speaking in a different language, and I’m not talking about Asgardian. One word for you: craaaaazy,” Toni snarked, and Rogers gave her a disapproving look that Toni returned with an unimpressed one of her own. Please, she’d grown up with _Howard_ as her father. If he thought his disapproval would have any effect on her, he had another thing coming.

“I am Thor of Asgard, brother of Loki. I had come to take Loki and the Tesseract back to our home, but I see now that we have much to discuss,” the blond guy – Thor – said, his tone heavy and imperial. Toni couldn’t help the sinking feeling at _that_ declaration, but she quickly masked it.

“Cool, great, glad we’re on the same page about the whole discussion thing. So you, me, Loki, and the Capsicle over there meet on the super snazzy helicarrier I’m not supposed to know about in 20? You take Freezer Burn, and I’ll give Rock of Ages a ride,” Tony suggested, then shot off before anyone could contradict her, flying back to the clearing where they’d left Loki and a little surprised to see that he was still waiting there. _That_ wasn’t a good sign; they’d left him alone with no one paying the slightest bit of attention to him, he certainly could’ve teleported. Or, ya know, at least _run_. Which probably meant Loki was up to something, something that required him being ‘captured,’ if she had to guess.

“Hey Magic Fingers, I’m here to give you a lift,” Toni declared, landing in front of him.

“Should I be honored to have the great Iron Queen acting as my royal chariot?” the god said sardonically with a simpering smile. Toni returned it with one of her own, batting her eyelashes for good measure.

“But of course! Although my method of travel tends to be hell on the hair, L’Oreal, and I’m afraid I don’t have an extra helmet to offer you,” she returned, grinning sharply before letting the helmet close over her face, sliding an arm around his middle, and launching them both into the air. 

The helicarrier was buzzing with activity when Toni dropped Loki off at his new place of residence, blowing him a kiss as she sashayed away from his glass cell. She stopped by the part of the hangar that JARVIS identified as a section set aside for her to leave the Iron Queen suit. Letting the door slide shut behind her, she stepped out of the suit, storing it away quickly and finding herself grateful that she’d been had to come directly from a meeting and was therefore in black slacks and red silk button-down instead of the extremely-tight undersuit she usually piloted the suit in. She gave herself a brief once-over in one of the glass walls, raking her fingers through her hair until it fell in perfectly-disarrayed waves around her face – she was Toni Fucking Stark, after all, she would _not_ show up looking like she’d just gotten caught in a windstorm – before stepping out into the hallway.

Coulson fell into step beside her as she walked, guiding her to where she assumed the rest of the children were playing. “Who all is here?” Toni asked, thinking back to the files he’d given her yesterday.

“Everyone except Barton – you, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner, and Thor. We weren’t anticipating Thor’s arrival, but it’s certainly an advantage,” Coulson responded, and Toni snorted.

“I’ll say. Having an actual god on our side, even if his brother _is_ the one we’re fighting against? Big perk for us,” she commented, and Coulson hummed his agreement. They were quickly coming up on the bridge, and Toni could hear pieces of their conversations.

“What do they need the iridium for?” one of the people standing around a large silver table was asking, and Toni thought back to the notes she’d read.

“It’s a stabilizing agent,” she responded, and the team turned to look at her. She made her way into the room, letting Coulson wander off to the side. “Means the portal won’t collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD. Also means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants.” She walked to the command center and idly pressed buttons, giving off the appearance of messing around disinterestedly while actually scanning the equipment rapidly and attempting to determine what all the controls were for, quietly slipping a bug on the underside of the command center before turning around to face the team again. “The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source with high energy density. Something to kick start the cube.”

Agent Hill was staring at her. “When did you become an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics?” she asked doubtfully, and Toni grinned sharply.

“Last night,” she said flippantly, brushing a few strands of hair out of the way and making her way closer to the table where Captain Spangles, Natashalie, and someone she assumed was Dr. Banner were all gathered. The movement also brought her closer to Thor, who was standing off to the side, observing her with an inscrutable expression. Toni refused to let that rattle her, continuing easily, “The packet, Selvig’s notes, the extraction theory paper. Am I the only one who did the reading?”

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Rogers asked, glancing around as though hoping someone else could answer. Thankfully, Bruce broke in.

“He’d have to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier,” the other scientist said, and Toni started making her way over.

“Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect,” Toni countered, and Dr. Banner looked surprised.

“Well if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet,” he said doubtfully, and Toni smiled at him with a small tinge of delight and offered a hand, which he took.

“Finally, someone who speaks English. Dr. Banner, it’s good to meet you. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into a giant green rage monster,” Toni said brightly, and Dr. Banner looked torn between exasperation and amusement. Ah, that was an expression she knew well.

“Dr. Banner is here to track the cube, I was hoping you might join him,” Fury declared, striding into the room with his usual flare. 

“I’d start with that stick of his. May be magical but works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon,” Rogers commented.

“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the cube,” Fury returned. “And I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

Thor looked confused. “I do not understand. Flying monkeys?”

“I do!” Rogers was quick to jump in, and Toni was unable to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. “I understood that reference.”

Thor still looked befuddled, but he appeared to dismiss his confusion, eyeing Fury gravely. “Aye, the cube and scepter are important, but there is something bigger at hand here,” he said, his tone ominous. 

“Like the fact that Loki just gave himself up willingly and without much of a fight?” Toni asked, and Thor turned to her with an expression of surprise.

“You caught on to my brother’s trick?” he asked, eyebrows aloft, and Toni snorted.

“Not much of a trick. Have you seen the footage of what he did at the SHIELD base when he first came through that portal? It wasn’t much of a leap to figure out he was going easy on us and letting himself get captured in Germany, and then he didn’t run when you took him off our plane,” Toni said derisively, crossing her arms.

“I don’t remember it as being particularly easy,” Rogers muttered, and Toni smirked at the back of his blond head.

“You are indeed insightful. But no, my brother’s tricks are not what I am referring to,” Thor said, and his eyes locked onto her in a way that made her deeply uncomfortable. She held herself still, unwilling to show weakness or discomfort.

“Then what _are_ you referring to?” Fury asked, and Thor didn’t break their eye contact.

“Her,” he said, inclining his head in Toni’s direction, and though she’d half-expected it, she still couldn’t stop the defensive shift in her posture when the rest of the bridge turned to stare at her.

“Aw, are you calling me special and important, Sparky? I’m touched, really,” Toni drawled with a sharp smile, unwilling to let herself be cowed.

“What does Stark have to do with this?” Fury demanded, turning his good eye on her like she was to blame for this. Toni just gave him a shit-eating grin. 

“The world revolves around me, Nicky – or hadn’t you heard?” she tossed out airily, and Fury gritted his teeth.

Thor simply frowned, glancing around the room as though confused at their lack of understanding. “Do you truly not know? Are you unable to recognize one of the oldest beings in existence?” he asked, a note of incredulity entering his voice. Toni’s face scrunched in confusion before she smoothed it over, hiding behind her signature sarcasm.

“Excuse you, I’m 29, I’m not even one of the oldest beings in this room,” she said huffily, and Thor’s eyes returned to her, a worried crease in his forehead.

“You don’t know, none of you do,” he murmured. “I knew Midgard was behind the other realms, but I had not realized the extent.”

The people on the bridge were exchanging looks, confused and concerned. “Thor, what are you talking about?” Fury finally asked, the question coming out more like a demand. Thor sighed, crossing the room to stand in front of Toni, who kept her expression carefully unconcerned as she looked up at this.

“I apologize in advance, dear Queen,” he said, and then he was reaching out, placing his palm flat against her forehead, and Toni felt as though something within her was being _tugged_, advancing slowly at first, then fast and faster as it razed everything in its path until she was being born anew, the knowledge clawing its way out of her, deep and dark and dangerous and _beautiful_.

And when she opened her eyes again, having unknowingly closed them, she was still Toni Stark, but she was so much _more_, millennia of knowledge and _power_ burning its way through her – the knowledge and power that she, Hades reborn, Death incarnate, possessed. 

She opened her eyes and _breathed_, _feeling_ in a way she hadn’t before. Her eyes lit on Thor first, standing as close as he was, and he eyed her solemnly as decades raced through her mind of pranks pulled together, wars fought together, deaths borne together.

“Queen Hades,” he greeted her.

“Thor,” she returned, and her voice had deepened, grown weightier, full of something _more_. 

“Excuse me, did he just say Hades?” Fury’s voice snapped out, and she and Thor turned back to the mortals in the room who were eyeing them with a mixture of bafflement and worry. Rogers looked completely confused, which Toni could only assume was his natural state of being. Banner was erring more on the side of concern, whereas Romanov and Fury were inscrutable. The rest of the room was a mixture, but they were of less concern to Toni at the moment.

“Indeed, I did,” Thor confirmed gravely.

“As in, _the_ Hades?” Dr. Banner clarified. 

“The one and only,” Tony said with a sharp smile, all teeth, and she took a slight pleasure in Fury’s disconcerted look that he didn’t quite manage to hide. 

“Explain,” he commanded, and Toni chuckled, low and throaty, the sound all danger as she glided a few steps closer to Fury, brushing just past Thor, who was watching her with a tinge of amusement. Toni _knew_ that her appearance had altered slightly, become more unearthly, defined her as something _other_, something that was more befitting of the Mistress of Death. Her hair had darkened, thickened, her skin becoming paler, her edges _sharper_; beautiful, yes, but now in a way that _breathed_ deadliness. 

She glided closer to Fury, movements inhumanly smooth, watching as his eyes dilated in fear, recognizing her finally for the predator she truly was. “Careful, Fury. I don’t take kindly to orders,” she said, her voice deceptively light. Fury’s eye widened slightly, but Toni could see the moment his back straightened and he refused to be cowed.

“What is the meaning of this, Stark?” he growled, and Toni felt an absent sort of admiration for his courage – or perhaps it was stupidity.

“What part is confusing you exactly?” she asked sweetly, and his brow furrowed in irritation. She continued before he could interject and get himself in trouble. “The part where I’m a goddess? Or the part where Thor recognized me for what I am and returned to me the knowledge of my true self?”

“A goddess? Jesus, Stark, I’ve heard about your ego but seeing it in person is something else,” Maria Hill sneered, and Toni smiled – and the shadows in the room _flexed_, coming to curl around the now-squirming woman who was looking steadily more alarmed.

“Stark!” Fury snapped, and Toni let her smile turn mocking as she waved a hand and the shadows unwound from Hill.

“I would suggest you refrain from insulting me, Agent. I’m unlikely to be so forgiving a second time,” Toni said, her tone saccharine, and Hill glared at her. 

“That was unnecessary, Stark,” Fury said, his tone chiding, and Toni refrained from rolling her eyes – but only just. Did these mortals truly think they could talk down to _her_? She, who had lived for centuries on their little planet before humans even had _fire_? She, who had fought Titans and giants and gods alike, had ruled over the realm of the dead, had been _worshipped_ by more worlds than these mortals even knew existed in the universe?

Thor appeared to be thinking along the same lines. “You would do well to show her more respect, Director,” he chided, frowning and coming to stand beside her. “She has existed since nearly the beginning of Creation.”

“So wait, you’re saying she really is a – a goddess?” Rogers said, eyes wide, and Toni had nearly forgotten the others were even in the room. She turned her smile on them, smile widening when Romanov’s control wavered just long enough for some of her _fear_ to seep through.

“That’s what he’s saying,” Toni confirmed. “Hades, Ruler of the Dead and Lord of Riches – or, well, _lady_ in this form, I suppose,” she added thoughtfully.

“How is that possible?” Romanov asked, her guard back up.

“Each god and goddess - or demigod, like myself and Loki - personifies some aspect of Creation,” Thor explained. “As you are aware, I am thunder and fertility, and Loki is chaos and mischief. Hades is death and wealth.”

“Right, we get that,” Fury interrupted, and Toni raised an eyebrow delicately, but Fury barreled on. “What we want to know is how _Stark_ can be Hades.”

“Gods shed their forms when they are not needed, then are reincarnated when the universe requires their presence again,” Thor answered easily, though he gave Fury a reproachful look. “Hades has not always been Hades – in fact, that was not even Death’s first form – but I refer to Lady Stark as such as that is the first form of Death that _this_ world knew. But Life and Death are two of the oldest aspects of creation – they have been around for far, far longer than Midgard has existed.”

“So there’s Life somewhere out there, too?” Banner asked, his tone surprised more than derisive as the others had been. Toni liked him.

Thor nodded. “Indeed, and it is likely that they are here on Midgard. Life and Death are near always reincarnated close to one another.”

“Wait, but if Stark is Death, shouldn’t we be…I dunno…_concerned_?” Rogers said awkwardly, eyes darting to the goddess in question before looking quickly away again.

“I do not understand, Captain,” Thor said, eyeing him with confusion, though Toni was fairly certain she knew what Rogers was alluding to.

Sure enough, Rogers fidgeted then said, “Ya know, I mean, she’s _Death_. And we kinda don’t like that here.”

Thor’s face turned stormy. “You do not understand what it is that Death does, if that is so. Death is a necessary part of Life. Just as all beginnings must have endings, all who live must someday die. Hades, Death, is the one who makes passage into the afterlife easier and who takes care of those who have passed on and keeps them content and sane. Without her, the realms would fall into chaos, with the dead pouring out into all aspects of the realms, feral from the endless passage of time – and people would _live_, no matter what state their body was in. Can you imagine a worse fate, Captain, than to be destroyed in body but forced to endure in mind?”

Steve had paled a little, and he shook his head no.

Thor nodded. “Death does not mean _evil_, and Hades has long been one of the best of us in her temperament and compassion,” he said, and Romanov snorted.

At Thor’s raised brow, she just looked at him disbelievingly. “_Stark_ has a good temperament? Or compassion? Maybe in her previous incarnations, but I haven’t seen much of that in this one,” she said derisively.

“Then you have not been looking,” Thor said, voice hard as iron as he stared her down. “Our reincarnations do not change our most basic traits, and every incarnation of Death has been one of the kindest and most compassionate beings I’ve had the pleasure of knowing.”

“Thor, buddy, you flatter me,” Toni drawled, coming up and sliding a hand on Thor’s shoulder. Thor turned to look down at her, a fond smile crossing his face, though the tension didn’t quite leave it.

“They do not understand the honor they have had in living amongst you.”

Toni shrugged. “Most don’t,” she said breezily, “but I think it might be time to focus on the more pressing issues at hand – namely, your brother and what he’s up to.”

Thor looked conflicted but nodded his acquiescence. “As you say, Queen Hades.”

Toni smiled brightly. “Good. Let’s go visit a demigod.” She started away towards where she could feel Loki’s presence, Thor following behind easily.

“Uh, excuse me, I don’t think we gave you permission to access the prisoner,” Fury called at their retreating backs, sounding, well, furious.

“We didn’t ask,” Toni called back carelessly. She heard footsteps pursuing them, but they had apparently learned their lesson from Hill’s display earlier and didn’t try to touch or stop her. Their entourage wove through the corridors of the helicarrier, agents alternatively staring at them in befuddlement and flinching at the sight of Toni as they passed, until they finally came to a halt in front of the glass cage holding a steadily-pacing Loki.

Loki looked up at their entrance, half-mad grin on his face and doubtless about to spew something incredibly sarcastic – then froze when he caught sight of Toni. “Mistress Death,” he greeted her, his tone surprised and the slightest bit awed. “I was not aware you had returned.”

“Neither was I until about 20 minutes ago,” Toni responded easily with a quirk of her lips. The rest of the group fanned out behind her, remaining quiet, but Loki’s eyes remained on her with a wary interest, and she took the opportunity to really take him in. The air fairly crackled around him, awash with old and powerful magic – magic that had existed long before the demigod, magic that was draining him into something _lesser_. “You’ve seen better days,” she commented finally. “Who is it who holds your leash, old friend?”

Loki’s face went blank, and Toni could hear the confused murmurs behind her, but she kept her eyes on the demigod. Blue eyes looked back at her, eerie in their unfamiliarity and _wrongness_. 

“He has long awaited your return, Lady Death,” Loki intoned finally, face drawn and grave, hands clasped behind his back as he met her eyes.

“He?” Toni asked lightly, though she felt anything but, worry and incense settling deep in her chest. Loki paused, looked as though he was biting back words furiously.

“I cannot say his name,” he said at last, though he appeared angry about it. “But I have called him the Mad Titan. He is a curse upon the realms, dear Hades.” And at this, his eyes were almost imploring, and Toni cocked her head.

“And yet you serve him,” she said simply, allowing the statement to function as a question, and Loki’s lip curled, eyes flashing green for the barest second before they slipped back into blue.

“I do not have a choice.”

“Bullshit,” Fury called out, striding forward proudly, and Toni held back the urge to smite him where he stood. He came to stand next to Toni as though they were equals and deigned to look at Loki as though he was beneath him. “You can’t just claim you’re mind controlled to get out of things willy-nilly, that’s not how things work, god or not. You have to pay for your actions.”

Toni stared at him, partially in amazement and partially in despairing hope that she’d never been this stupid as a mortal. “And are you intending to discipline your precious Barton when he returns to you?” she demanded before Thor could step in, his face already thunderous. 

Fury turned his one-eyed gaze on her, thinking himself unreadable but actually revealing a significant amount of fear. “Of course not,” he said, as though Toni were the slow one. “He’s been brainwashed by the scepter.”

Toni’s gaze devolved from incredulous to derisive. “And is that not exactly what happened to Loki?”

Fury sputtered, his cool mask faltering. “You have no proof that – “

“I shall stop you right there, Director,” Toni interrupted impatiently, gesturing towards Loki. “His eyes are blue right now, yes?” She waited until she got a grudging nod from Fury. “That is evidence of the scepter’s control. His eyes have been green before this.”

“We have no way of corroborating that,” Fury blustered angrily, and Thor stepped forward with an angry rumble.

“You have my word that my brother’s eyes were previously green. I’m sure that is all you require,” he said, voice low and dangerous, and Fury looked between the two of them, eventually deciding this was a battle that couldn’t be won.

“Fine,” he said finally. “_Fine_. But we have no way of breaking the mind control.”

“Leave that to us,” Toni responded airily, gesturing to herself and Thor. And he nodded, and they stepped forward, the glass door opening. And Loki launched himself at them, but they were ready, easily subduing and wrenching the Mad Titan’s hold from his mind.

And when he went limp between them, he told them quickly of the plan he had hatched before his capture.

With that information, it was no trouble at all to stop the invasion, to keep aliens out of New York. Rogers, Barton, Romanov, and Dr. Banner helped, in their own ways, and pictures of them showed up in papers the next morning.

And with that, the Avengers were born.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> note that loki didn't recognize her at first bc he was brainwashed and that dulled his senses, and she hadn't been awakened yet. once she'd been awakened, it was enough to overcome the mind control.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lead up to IW

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! This is kind of a bridge chapter, mostly just intended to show how things were in the time between Avengers and Infinity War. Next chapter should be longer. Enjoy!

It didn’t take long for Toni to find the Avengers annoying.

“You’re all welcome to come stay at the Tower, darlings,” she called over her shoulder, one hand tucked into the crook of Thor’s arm as they walked back in that direction, Loki at her other side.

“Is she kidding? Who would want to stay with _Death_?” she heard Steve mutter behind her, probably believing she was too far away to hear him. Thor tensed, expression clouding, and she patted him soothingly.

“It’s okay, dearest. Some people simply have no taste,” she confided, tone equal parts sharp and bright.

“They should not disrespect you so, dear Queen,” Thor rumbled dangerously, though he allowed her to continue pulling him forward. “They do not understand what you have done to keep the realms safe.”

Toni only shrugged. “Few do. I’m not in it for the praise.”

The sound of footsteps pattering quickly after them had them slowing just a bit until one slightly out-of-breath Bruce Banner caught up with them. “Uh, if you’re serious, I’d, uh, like to take you up on it, if that’s alright.”

Toni found his obvious nervousness adorable. “’Course I’m serious, Brucie bear,” she said with a beam, linking her free arm through his, and he blinked, falling into step with them. “You’ll have to check out R&D while you’re here. It’s candyland for people like us.”

Bruce ended up being the only one who moved in, though he left often for different medical outreach programs. Thor and Loki headed back to Asgard, grim-faced and promising to return when they could. The others – well, the others went back to SHIELD, from what JARVIS had been able to gather.

Ahh, JARVIS. He’d noticed something different about her as soon as she put on the Iron Queen armor but hadn’t brought it up in the heat of the fight. But the talk they had after that was _long_. She wondered now if her determination to create an AI was borne of subconscious longing for her beloved Persephone.

After that, the only ones left to tell were Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy. It had been…strange, a little awkward, finding out that one of their closest friends was a literal _goddess_. Rhodey swore up and down that he wouldn’t be building her any altars, sternly telling her that he’d done his fair share of ‘worship’ looking after her drunk ass at MIT, which, fair. Happy simply rolled his eyes and muttered something about her being even _more_ insufferable now. Pepper had gotten very quiet before finally saying, “Well, now it’s going to be awkward when I have to yell at you about coming to meetings.”

Yeah, Toni loved her friends.

But other than that, Toni didn’t broadcast her newly revealed goddess status. She didn’t care if it came out, but she wasn’t interested in trying to _force_ the truth out there. SHIELD seemed to agree but with more emphasis on _hiding_ Toni’s true nature. Whatever. She would do what she needed to do to keep people safe, and SHIELD and the rest of the team could go fuck themselves.

“What the fuck, Stark?” Rogers yelled as he came up on her at the end of the battle, the other Avengers filling in the spaces behind him. “What, you just can’t stand to be out of the spotlight for more than two seconds and wanted to show off your dangerous powers?”

Toni held her ground easily, looking him in the eye without fear, her helmet retracted. “Not at all, Captain,” she said coolly. “But I don’t place my identity over the lives of innocent people. Do you have an objection to that?”

It was almost funny to watch him to fumble for a response, face growing progressively redder. “Of course not, but you didn’t _have_ to bring out your…_powers_, you could’ve found another way!”

At that, Toni outright rolled her eyes. “JARVIS and I both went through every possibility and determined that this was the best way forward in order to preserve all innocent civilian life,” she stated simply, her tone flat and indicative that she thought all of the others idiots. Steve puffed up.

“Yeah, and I’m sure there was a _slightly_ less attention-grabbing option that would have kept your secret actually a secret,” Natashalie chimed in, tone skeptical, and Toni didn’t even glance at her.

“You can all believe what you like,” she said dismissively with an unconcerned shrug. “I’ll be at the Tower.”

And she shot off without a second thought.

Or rather, she shot off without a second thought about their wellbeing, but she did consider whether or not she could continue to rely on them as teammates with their belligerent behavior. They had never forgiven her for being Hades, and, while she couldn’t work up the emotion to care about their silly mortal biases, she was still reliant on them to watch her back during missions. If they continued to behave like this, it might be enough to be a genuine concern.

But she was Hades, and she was a _fixer_, more than anything. She’d fixed the Underworld when her family had saddled her with it, unruly and unmanaged as it was. She’d fixed herself when she’d still been mortal and realized that Life had a place amongst Death, forgoing the weapons business before she even knew what her aspect meant. She’d fixed everything she could ever since, and that included the Avengers, the extra-terrestrial war that she knew was coming, the Accords.

Oh God, the Accords.

She’d known Rogers wasn’t her Persephone, but they’d still been able to strike something up, hot breaths gasping between them, foreheads pressed together as they made the final plunge into whatever messy thing they could have together. Hate sex, Toni preferred to call it, since it usually happened right after one of their more intense arguments.

And there were no hard feelings when Barnes reared his unfairly-attractive head again, although she was hurt and _angry_ that Steve hadn’t given her a heads-up about releasing SHIELD’s information to the public.

She felt it as far too many agents died.

Agents who she could’ve saved, if she’d just known that they were in danger to begin with.

Rogers had been unrepentant, loudly proclaiming his righteous need to protect Barnes through everything, at the expense of anyone.

She was Death, Rogers had explained patronizingly when he got around to telling her why he couldn’t ask her for help before breaking it off with her. He couldn’t be sure if she’d save Bucky or condemn him to death just to add to her numbers.

And Death smiled coldly, understanding perhaps more than he expected (wanted) her to.

And She relinquished him as an ally.

It was only further reinforced after Ultron.

After even Thor disregarded her personhood, lifted her by the throat, _blamed her_.

She was _Death_, she _could not_ create Life, no matter how hard she tried. It was folly to think she had been responsible for Ultron’s creation. An AI, sure – but an AI wasn’t a _person_, an AI could be programmed to follow certain protocols, behave a certain way. Ultron certainly couldn’t.

But they didn’t care. They believed that since Ultron desired death, that meant he was Toni’s.

And Toni didn’t bother to try to disavow them of their beliefs. After all, if they believed this of her, why should she spare them another second of thought?

The Civil War was not a surprise, after that. The Accords reared their ugly head, and Toni tried to work within them, understanding that, after their shortcomings, the Accords Council might not be willing to listen to her recommendations. 

But they did. And she thought she had at least an iota of a handle on them.

And then Rogers rebelled. And so many followed.

Leipzig. Rhodey.

The RAFT.

And then she was in Siberia, trying to understand what had brought them to this moment. 

Her mother and father died in front of her.

Sure, they were just the mother and father of this life, and sure Howard hadn’t been kind to her – but Maria had been. Maria had been her mother in every sense of the word.

And to see her strangled? Only a few feet from her strangler?

Well. She had lived through enough reincarnations to have an even temper – but this form had not.

This form turned on Rogers, furious, hurt, hoping that the family she’d extended to them had included her in their minds.

“Did you know?”

“I didn’t know it was him.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Rogers. Did. You. Know.”

“…Yes.”

And _God_. It hurt _so much_.

And later, when she was lying in the cold in Siberia, _hurting_, she finally came to the conclusion that these ‘Avengers’, such as they were, weren’t worth her time.

She had lived through _eons_, she knew the secrets to success on _millions_ of planets, and the Avengers’ continual refusal to listen to her wasn’t a flaw in _her_ \- it was a flaw in their ridiculous, awful system that had been biased against her from the start, that had thought it knew what it meant to be a Stark, to be Hades, before it encountered her and had been unwilling to reevaluate its protocols. 

And so, when the so-called Avengers left the States, she didn’t fight for their return.

And then – 

Then, a miracle happened.

Something that Toni had never expected.

“Miss Stark? I’m Dr. Stephanie Strange,” the sorceress said, tone imperious, her voice resonating in Toni’s bones in a way the sorceress could never have known, freezing her in place. “And I need you to come with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys so I got a comment regarding this chapter and a particular dislike for it bc the opinion was that it came off as OOC for BAMF Toni to let herself get walked all over. I really hope no one else reading it has felt this way, but I wanted to post my thought process when writing this chapter to stave off any further comments. My thought process is that yes, Toni is a goddess who has lived through so much and didn't put up with anyone's shit. And when that part of her is at the forefront, she very much knows her due. However, she's also only recently come into her aspect, so her mortal vs immortal sides were still duking it out for dominance in the last chapter.
> 
> I usually try to write through my characters' eyes, so I tried to put myself in her situation. Like. Imagine you're a previously-mortal person with a ton of self-confidence issues borne of years of believing yourself to be not good enough who just had thousands of years worth of memories of being good enough dumped onto you at once in the middle of a global crisis. Granted that's never happened to me, but trying to put myself in those shoes, I'm picturing shock that has to be pushed aside to fend off the crisis followed by a long period of trying to reconcile those beliefs and values held by a mortal with those held by an immortal.
> 
> So her speech to Hill was running off of that initial high + compartmentalization, as were her interactions with Thor and Loki directly after, but that doesn't last. So her behavior after New York was purposely scattered and inconsistent - sometimes she knew her worth and displayed her heritage, and sometimes she behaved like the mortal she still sometimes felt like. A lot of the difference between whether she behaves as a deity vs a mortal depends on her emotions - when she feels enraged, the deity aspect pops out, but when she feels guilty or unworthy, as she often did around the Avengers, her experiences as a mortal push through.
> 
> So yes, this story follows canon and Toni is pushed around more than I want. But that was very much by design, since that's how I imagine suddenly finding out you're a millennia-old deity after believing yourself mortal for your whole life would cause you to behave. And ofc I could be wrong, this is science fiction/adventure. But I'm doing my best here.
> 
> So with that being said, I would really appreciate if y'all could hold off on negative comments for the moment. I haven't been getting many, most of you are insanely nice, much more so than I deserve. But yeah, I'm super stressed with school, have very little time and energy to write, and coming back to a work and seeing negative comments on it just really kills both my motivation and the happiness I get from writing. Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying this, and if you aren't, please find something else to read without leaving a negative comment behind here? Thanks, I appreciate you all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toni discovers her Life in the middle of Thanos's threat to the Universe.
> 
> IW part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> worked from 1 am till 7 pm yesterday and had inspiration after and ended up writing. had to go in at 5:30 am today and tried to proofread and publish, so i'm sorry for any mistakes. hope you enjoy.
> 
> love you guys, pretty sure i'm coming off flat rn but i'm just super tired. had inspiration and wanted to post. thanks for putting up with me <3

Toni recognized her immediately; how could she not? Her Persephone reborn, valiantly fighting for the Lives that were at stake.

The love of her lives, her love of any eternity, eons stretching between them but limited by her love’s unrealized mortal lifespan.

Because it was clear Strange didn’t recognize her in return, hadn’t reached and found her immortal form, so Death stayed quiet. The experience of being woken before she was ready – well, Toni understood why Thor had needed to do that, to uncover what was going on with Loki – it had been…unpleasant. The majority of the aftereffects had happened later, thankfully allowing her to fight without the roaring headaches of millennia of knowledge stuffed into her all at once, but the few days after the invasion had not been enjoyable. She would not force that on Life, not if there was no reason to. So Toni said nothing.

Or, about that, at least.

In hindsight, it was fortunate that Rhodey had accompanied her on her jog, his grounding presence bringing her back to the present and pushing the snark that came so easily to her to the surface.

“I’m sorry, are you kidnapping me or something?” Toni demanded, heart pounding with her discovery but trying to maintain her façade, and Strange gave her an unamused look, Rhodey shifting quietly but protectively behind her.

“We need your help,” Strange said, giving Rhodey a passing glance, then looking back at her and meeting her eyes with a clear-eyed ferocity. “Look, it’s not over-selling it to state the fate of the universe is at stake.”

God, she was beautiful. Her dark hair was chin-length, curly, unruly in the way that Life always seemed to be, ice blue eyes glinting cleverly in the light, skin sun-kissed and lightly freckled. And she was tall, taller than Toni, the sorcerer’s attire unable to mask that she was curvy where Toni was all pale, sharp edges.

Oh right, there was a conversation going on.

“And who’s we?” Toni demanded, and Bruce Banner stumbled out of the portal. Toni’s eyes widened, surprised but still hardened, unwilling to accept him back now that he’d rejected her to defend Ultron in front of the entire world by herself. She’d managed it, of course – but the fact that Banner had left her to it?

She could not count him as a friend, not anymore. Not an enemy, not the way Rogers and his crew were – but the friendship and trust built between them over the years were lost, at least for now.

“Banner,” she greeted coldly, but Banner appeared not to notice the unfriendly greeting, stumbling forward.

“Toni,” he gasped hoarsely, falling into her arms, dead weight lugging against her until she wrapped her arms around him, face blank and keeping her distaste off her face. But Life – Strange - _Stephanie_ \- met her eyes over Banner’s shoulder and cocked an eyebrow at her. And Toni wasn’t sure if it was because they’d been together for all of their lives, longer than perhaps any other beings had been together, or if Stephanie was just being blatantly obvious on purpose, but Toni could read the _’is this lack of enthusiasm how you respond to all your friends?’ _clearly in the woman’s expression.

Not a friend, Toni tried to convey with her eyes, expression hard and narrow. And then both eyebrows lifted, and Stephanie gave a brief nod, though now she looked…_curious_.

“Hate to interrupt the reunion,” Stephanie drawled, folding her arms and looking sarcastically irritated, “but I think it’s time we move this somewhere a little less public.”

And with a glance around, Toni noted that they’d become an object of interest and outright stares, people pulling out camera phones and taking note of their strange little group. Banner pulled back and nodded, offering Toni a slightly watery smile, which she blinked at in surprise. There was something so honest in his smile, something so genuinely relieved to see her, that she was caught off guard.

But before she could do much more than make a mental note of it, Stephanie was circling her hand, other hand held straight, and a golden portal appeared, a large staircase and strange assortment of objects present on the other side. Bruce stepped through without hesitation, but Rhodey turned to her.

“I think I should go inform the Accords Council about…all of this,” he said grimly, purposefully not looking at either the portal Bruce had disappeared through or the sorcerer standing behind them, and Toni nodded in understanding. 

“I’ll come back with updates when I can,” Toni promised, and Rhodey nodded, leaning forward and pressing a quick kiss against her cheek.

“Stay safe, you menace,” he commanded with a small smile, and she snorted, putting a hand against her heart as though wounded.

“Honeybear! I can’t believe you would doubt me!” she exclaimed, and Rhodey gave her a knowing look.

“I don’t doubt anything, least of all your ability to find trouble.”

“Hey, I don’t find trouble, trouble finds me, asshole!” she called at his receding back, and he flipped her off without turning around, heading in the direction of the Tower. Snickering, Toni turned back to see Stephanie looking at her with something akin to judgement.

“So. You and the Colonel.”

Toni blinked, brow furrowing as she tried to parse out that sentence. “Are BFFs? Are platonic soulmates? Are super badass? Gonna need you to finish that sentence, princess.”

And Stephanie’s expression changed from judgmental to understanding to neutral in two quick flips. “Ah. Because a kiss is such a platonic display of affection.”

“A cheek kiss?” Toni protested, slightly bewildered, and dammit if Stephanie didn’t look a little confused herself, though Stephanie looked more like she was confused at _herself_ than anything else, a sentiment Toni could relate to.

“Sure. Through the portal, if you would, Miss Stark,” Stephanie said, tone and expression returning to neutral, and Toni gave her a shit-eating grin, glad to be on the familiar ground of forced neutrality and overt politeness, even if it wasn’t a ground that she particularly wanted to be in with _this_ particular person.

“As you wish, Miss Strange.”

And Toni stepped through the portal, walking casually to the other side as though she walked through portals all the time. Of course, she’d traveled through many portals in her lifetimes, but they weren’t her preferred method of travel, and she hadn’t made a habit of just going through portals without checking to make _sure_ they were taking her to the right place; fuck knew where people might take her otherwise, and she in any form had trust issues. Gods, she missed shadow-traveling. It had been a while since she’d gotten to do that, not wanting to give away her goddess-borne secret so unnecessarily here on Midgard where such a thing could be too noticeable. Besides, she could fly in the Iron Queen suit, and that was almost as good.

But this was Stephanie, the Life to her Death, even if she didn’t know it yet, and Toni trusted her implicitly.

The next hour was a blur of information, finally putting a name to the being she’d heard about from Loki all those years ago, and ending with her collapsed roughly in one of the uncomfortable seats by the giant staircase, full of tension and leaning onto her elbows as she tried to process everything.

“At the dawn of the Universe, there was nothing,” some other sorcerer apparently called Wong was intoning, as though Toni didn’t already know this, but she remained patient. “Then – “ an impressive lights display from the sorcerer’s hands appeared, displaying what Wong described as he described it, “Big Bang sent six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe. These infinity stones could control an essential aspect of existence.”

Yeah, not exactly how it had happened, but whatever. Not really relevant to the current discussion.

“Space,” Stephanie said as the stone lit up in the display, and Toni’s eyes shot to her, riveted no matter the content of what she was saying, “reality, power, soul, mind, and time.” And with that, Stephanie did a gesture over the eye-like necklace she wore, and it opened partially, revealing a green glowing gem within. Toni could only stare, unsurprised, at the Time Stone within. It made sense, it would _always_ make sense, that Time had found Life – for what was Life but Time with a specific end?

“Tell me his name again,” she demanded, and Bruce stumbled forward, apparently eager to give her whatever information she required.

“Thanos,” he said, almost desperately as Toni pushed herself to her feet and paced. “He’s a plague, Toni. He invades planets, he takes what he wants, he wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York – that’s him.”

Like Toni hadn’t been warning them - _everyone_ \- about New York being only the beginning, about the person who held Loki’s leash, only to be ignored, rebuffed, _ridiculed_ for _years_.

But she didn’t point that out. “This is it,” she whispered instead. “What’s our timeline?” she asked louder, turning her back to Bruce and walking across the room so that she didn’t have to look at him.

“No telling,” Bruce answered, voice a mixture of determination and despair. “He has the Power and Space stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six stones, Toni – “

And then Stephanie interceded, expression pinched and red cape fluttering worriedly behind her, and Toni had to turn away and do something casual – otherwise, she’d fall all over herself trying to reassure Life that Death was not going to allow something so horrific – so she leaned on a vase-looking-thing. “He could destroy Life on a scale hitherto undreamt of.”

Snark. Snark was a good thing to fall back on. Toni pulled her left ankle up behind her, stretching it while her right hand held her steady on the vase thingie, scoffing. “Did you seriously just say hitherto undreamt of?”

“Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?” Stephanie’s outraged voice asked behind her, and then Toni’s eyes bulged as her ass was swatted, spinning around and staring at Stephanie, who was looking back at her impassively.

“I’m – going to allow that,” Toni said weakly, then her eyes caught on the cape fluttering protectively around its master, and Toni had a moment of realization and embarrassment of having leapt to the wrong conclusion in her hopes that she quickly tried to cover. “If Thanos needs all six, why don’t we just stick this one down a garbage disposal?” she asked flippantly, and Stephanie shook her head, eyes flashing with the barest semblance of Life’s power.

“No can do,” she said, voice challenging and forbidding at once.

“We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives,” Wong intoned.

“And I swore off dairy,” Toni interjected offhandedly, mind whirling and trying to get her thoughts back in line as she spoke, “then Ben & Jerry’s named a flavor after me so.”

“Stark Raving Hazelnut,” Stephanie agreed with a nod, and Toni tried not to beam at the acknowledgment that Stephanie had at least _looked_ at her.

“It’s not bad,” Toni said with an uncaring shrug.

“Bit chalky,” Stephanie said derisively, and Toni tried not to pout.

“A Hunk’a Hulk’a Burnin’ Fudge is our favorite,” Wong chimed in.

“That’s a thing?” Bruce asked, a little distraught.

“Whatever,” Toni interjected before things could get too off-track. “Point is, things change.”

“Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change,” Stephanie said, stepping forward and intruding on Toni’s space just a bit more, and Toni felt equal parts exasperated and irritatingly turned-on. Blue eyes burned into hers, ice-cold but simultaneously warm and protective, fierce in their steadfast determination to fulfill their duty, and Toni felt her heart drift helplessly a little further towards love. Yep, that was her wife, alright.

Toni didn’t think they’d ever made it more than 24 hours without at least a minor argument over _something_. Stubborn, opinionated, convinced they were always right – that described both of them, and going head to head with an equal was what had brought them together, brought civilization together, brought _Existence_ together.

But the difference between her and Stephanie as compared to her and Steve, who almost didn’t bear mentioning, was that she and Stephanie, Death and Life, might not always _agree_, but they _respected_ each other, would always _consult_ one another, would try to find an _equilibrium_. And, of course, they loved each other – but that wasn’t what _made_ their relationship work. They wanted to be _equals_, and they were willing to compromise when they should, and they understood when they shouldn’t and simply needed to communicate better – and they were willing to be convinced that they were wrong. They were _always_ willing to listen and be convinced by their partner, and _gods_ was that ever important.

“ – and this stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos,” Stephanie was continuing when Toni got over her love-struck, annoying semi-hormonal-surge and tuned back in.

“Yeah, so, conversely it may also be his best chance against us,” Toni argued, though her heart wasn’t really in it. The Time Stone was too integral to Life for her to honestly desire its destruction, but, if she were a mortal receiving this news, this was the stance she was sure she’d take. Gods, it was hard to think with her so close.

“Only if we don’t do our jobs.”

“What is your job, exactly, besides making balloon animals?” Toni asked acerbically, trying to force herself out of the intoxicating effects of having Life so close by yet untouchable. 

Stephanie gave her a cool look. “Protecting your reality. Douchebag,” she said derisively, and Toni held back a flinch at the insult.

“O – Okay guys, can we table this discussion right now?” Bruce interjected, and Toni couldn’t be anything but grateful as Stephanie turned her attention to Bruce and Toni was able to suck in a few deep breaths of air, clearing her head. Bruce continued, “The fact is that we have this stone, we know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone, and we have to find him now.”

And all eyes turned to her. “Yeah, that’s the thing,” Toni said, tone casual though she felt a flicker of worry for Vision. 

“What do you mean?” Bruce asked, tone almost accusatory, and Toni tried not to bristle.

“Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He’s offline.”

Bruce stared at her, as though she had personally done something wrong, and she turned away from him, pacing away so she didn’t have to look at his face. “What?” he snapped, tone acerbic, and any camaraderie she’d been feeling with him evaporated. “Toni, you’ve lost another superbot?”

She took a deep breath, telling herself to retain her temper – but it was a losing battle as years of bad memories were tugged forward, years of blame and distrust and _disgust_ burst to the surface – and right after she’d been tentatively ready to accept Banner’s enthusiasm as genuine affection and trust. She was hurt – she couldn’t deny it, though she wished she could control her anger a little better as the shadows on the walls lengthened, stretched, darkened the vicinity. She spun around furiously, rounding on Banner. “That would imply that _I_ lost a superbot in the first place, doctor,” she said silkily, striding towards him with all the cool predatory grace that she’d had when speaking to Fury so many years ago. And by the look of it, Banner knew it, eyes widening and drawing in on himself defensively. She only smiled, though the gesture was anything but pleasant, making no moves to attack as she crossed her arms behind her back casually, ignoring Strange and Wong of to the side, observing with inscrutable expressions. “Which I didn’t,” she continued, holding a finger up as Banner opened his mouth, undoubtedly to protest. “Ah-ah-ah,” she said, voice light and teasing and menacing, smile dangerous. “Don’t want you to embarrass yourself by sprouting out unfounded biases, _Brucie bear_.” Banner flinched at the once-endearing nickname, and Toni’s smile widened, eyes flashing.

“I can’t create Life, did you know that?” she asked conversationally, re-crossing her arms behind her back as she stalked in a circle around Banner, who was alternating between avoiding her gaze and keeping her in his line of vision, looking increasingly nervous. She chuckled as she came back to his face, giving him a simultaneously pitying and knowing look. “Of course you did,” she said, voice all insincere saccharine sympathy. “After all, I’m the Merchant of Death, right?” She knew he would understand what she meant, understand what she was saying – that she was Hades, that she was Death, that Life was out of her domain – as she circled around him, coming to a stop in front of him once more and making eye contact, smile derisively pitying, almost hateful. “I _can’t_ make life, not truly. AIs? Sure. But true Life? That’s not within my abilities. And that’s what Ultron was. That’s what Vision _is_ \- _alive_.” And her eyes bored deep into Banner’s, who was looking progressively cowed as she smiled sharply again. “So you see, laying the blame for that at my feet is an uneducated, biased _folly_,” and the last word hissed out of her, Banner appearing sincerely disconcerted as her eyes narrowed, letting her _hate_ spit out, “not that you or any of the rest of the Avengers _cared_.”

And then she drew back, resuming her pacing with a neutral expression as she tore her eyes away from Banner, who sucked in a deep breath desperately. “Not that it mattered in the least to _you_, who helped me with the coding for the program Ultron, who could’ve _told_ everyone that we were nowhere near sentience, who could’ve backed me up, but who instead _ran away_ and left me to deal with the aftermath on my own.”

She came to a stop in front of him in the end again, grinned her shark-like grin. “Which we were cleared of, no thanks to you,” she said acerbically, and Banner’s eyes were wide, wet, expression regretful and mournful and cowed. 

“Toni – I – I’m – “ 

“Save it,” she bit out viciously with a sharp smile. She pulled a phone out of her pocket and tossed it to him, which he caught clumsily, looking at her with wide, confused eyes. “Rogers might know where Vision is. He’s the only number programmed into that phone,” Toni said, voice cutting, and she turned her back on Banner, inadvertently meeting eyes with Stephanie. Stephanie, whose (beautiful, luscious) hair was rippling, though they were indoors. Toni’s brow furrowed.

“Say, Doc, you wouldn’t happen to be moving your hair, would you?” she asked.

“Not at the moment, no,” Stephanie responded, expression almost-inscrutable but belaying concern. They all glanced up at the hole in the ceiling that the Hulk had come through, then Toni walked towards the front door, alarm growing as screams sounded through the entrance. She burst through the door of the building, running into the sidewalk as people ran towards her right. She ran to the left, helping someone up as she went.

“You okay?” she asked, and the woman simply darted away. Toni saw someone fall. “Help him!” she barked at another passerby, who stooped down to help the guy up. “Wong, look alive,” she commanded, making fierce eye contact with the sorcerer. 

“Go, go, we’ve got it!” Banner yelled, and Toni let her mind fall into battle mode, deciding to trust him to have her back for the moment.

She strode forward, pulling on her glasses. “FRIDAY, darling, what’s going on?”

“Not sure, I’m working on it,” FRIDAY responded tersely, and Toni repressed the desire to curse. If FRIDAY was having trouble parsing through the data, they may really be in trouble.

“Hey, you might wanna put that Time Stone in your back pocket, Doc!” she yelled, turning around and pointing at her too-brave Stephanie, who was glaring at the sidelines fiercely, calling forward her gold magic as she clanged her wrists together and made fists.

“Might want to use it,” she growled, and Toni refused to use this moment to fall further in love, turning around hurriedly instead and pushing forward. 

It was chaos. Winds pushing directions they shouldn’t, people screaming in terror, running away from, from – 

\- a giant metal circle in the sky.

Huh. Toni had to admit she hadn’t seen that coming.

Regardless, though, it was clearly causing panic amongst the people – not that Toni could blame them – and as Toni rounded the corner and caught sight of it, she strode forward purposefully. 

“FRIDAY, evac anyone south of 43rd street and notify first responders,” she commanded.

“Will do.”

Gold magic spun through the air, swirling towards the side of the metal circle and causing an unnatural stillness to fall over the street. Toni refused to look to the side, knowing Stephanie and her beautiful, glowing magic would be there and uncertain she could prevent herself from expressing extremely inappropriate affection at the sight.

A light blue light beamed down, and two figures appeared, one small and slight, the other big and menacing, neither of the two earthly in appearance.

She, Strange, Wong, and Bruce strode forward into the array of burned out, crispy cars and half-demolished buildings of the streets of New York as the small, skinny blue creature proclaimed imperiously, “Hear me and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos.” Toni tried not to roll her eyes, and the big, stupid one growled and palmed his axe. “Be thankful that your meaningless lives are now contributing – “

“I’m sorry,” Toni interjected with no trace of apology in her tone, “Earth is closed today. You better pack it up and get outta here.”

“Stonekeeper,” the thin one said, addressing Stephanie, and Toni tried not to bristle, “does this chattering animal speak for you?”

“Certainly not, I speak for myself,” Stephanie growled, stepping forward defensively, glowing magic surrounding her wrists, standing defensively in front of Wong, Banner, and Toni. “You’re trespassing in this city and on this planet.”

“She means get lost, Squidward,” Toni called delightedly, trying to shift her gaze from her too-sexily-protective wife to the alien in front of them.

“She exhausts me,” the thin alien said, looking at the big one. “Bring me the stone.”

Oh, that was so not going to happen. “Banner, you wanna piece?” she requested, disregarding the tension between her and Banner as she fell into battle-mode.

“Mmm, no, not really. But when do I ever get what I want.” And Toni would’ve been more sympathetic if she hadn’t lived too many lives that were much worse than Banner’s under exactly that mantra.

So Toni waited for him to do as he’d done during the last few battles they’d had together – but Banner was struggling, unable to pull forward the part of himself that he didn’t trust, and that part of himself unable to trust him in return.

And, _gods_, if she couldn’t understand that sentiment, that feeling of trying to accept what she considered bad but that the Universe considered necessary for balance?

Well, there was no better person to understand how one could be torn apart by their own necessary purpose and conflicting emotions than Death.

And so once he’d struggled for a while, she placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay, stand down,” she comforted, pushing him backwards, behind herself and the wizards. She made eye contact with Wong. “Keep an eye on him, would you?” she requested, and he gave her a brief nod.

“I have him,” Wong said confidently as Bruce cursed at himself. 

Toni forced herself to turn around as the bigger alien strode forward with an indelicate roar. Toni stepped forward, tapping the glowing triangle at her chest and letting the armor expand over her.

It was time to fight.

The battle was almost over and she'd thought for sure that they'd won when she saw a two figures being beamed up by a blue light. And once she'd focused in, there was no choice when she saw Stephanie being pulled onto the ship. She shot forward, pouring power into her thrusters. “FRIDAY, give the thrusters all systems power,” she hissed. “We have to catch up to that ship.” And she shot forward even harder.

And thankfully, blessedly, they did. She carved a hole into the side of the ship as Rhodey called her. She picked up, trying to maintain a cool head as Earth – Midgard – the only home she’d known in this form – grew steadily smaller behind her.

“Toni? Sweetheart, please tell me you’re alright,” Rhodey pleaded desperately, and Toni tried not to picture the terrified expression on his face.

“Hey, Platypus, I’m fine, just on an alien ship,” she said breezily, striding further inside, away from the cavernous hole currently sucking out any numerous variety of objects before she replaced the hole she just made. 

“…the one that just left us?” Rhodey asked, and Toni could tell he was trying to keep his tone neutral, but she could hear the waver.

“That’s the one, sour patch,” she said jovially, though she felt anything but. She forced herself to smile, though she knew he couldn’t see her. “You know I’ve always wanted to experience all the stuff in space, Rhodey bear!” she chirped.

“Ton – pl – come b – need yo –,” Rhodey’s voice was cutting out, intermittent and tinged with a mixture of professionalism and desperation.

“Rhodey?” she asked, trying to keep her voice neutral but unable to help the slight waver in her entreaty. Static greeted her, not even FRIDAY able to follow her here. She was on her own.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So any of yall who are following this fic may have noticed that I added another chapter to the total count. So the chapter you're about to read was 100% supposed to cover waaaaay more than it did, but it would've ended up being a 10-15K+ chapter based on how it was going. I reached what seemed like a decent stopping point, so I decided to split my original plan for this chapter into two chapters, so the ch count went up. Hope you guys don't mind.
> 
> So sorry for the delay on this and any other of my works you guys may be reading - I've been having some pretty bad writers block and have been really busy with rotations. This chapter was a fight to get out that was a while in the making.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

Watching Stephanie get tortured was _not_ a pleasant experience. Toni was pretty sure those screams were going to be heavily featured in her nightmares for the foreseeable future, and she moved quickly and silently, rage filling her at the alien creature’s threats. She debated her options for a moment, then decided _fuck it_ and stepped forward.

“Oi, Squidward, when I told you to get lost, it didn’t mean that you could take one of my people with you,” Toni called, dark hair streaming behind her as she strode imperiously into the alien’s line of sight, behind where Stephanie was hovering in the middle of the vicious-looking needles. Stephanie couldn’t see her from where she was suspended, but Squidward’s eyes shot to her, and he sneered, appearing unconcerned as he strode around Stephanie towards her, hands clasped behind his back. That was fine, Toni thought coldly. She would _show_ him that he should fear her.

“Well, if it isn’t the chattering animal,” Squidward jeered, stopping slightly in front of her, the picture of ease. Toni smiled sharply at him.

“Just couldn’t stay away from you, sweet pea,” she simpered, calling on her aspect, letting the _darkness_ rise to the surface, though the alien appeared not to notice. 

“It was foolish of you to follow us. Now you will _both_ die,” Squidward said with a careless confidence, and he raised a hand – but Toni was quicker and _angrier_.

Grin turning feral as her aspect surged forward, Toni let her powers grow and be _unleashed_, fury that _someone had touched what was hers_, that someone had _dared_ cause her Persephone _harm_ filling her to the _brim_, power surging forward in a way she had never allowed before, too conscious of the need for discretion and lack of need for such force. The shadows swelled around her, surrounding her, caressing her before reaching out their smoky tendrils to wrap around the alien until he was held motionless, eyes wide with shock as he stared at her.

Toni knew she must look _inhuman_ right now, surrounded by her lovely shadows, writhing and snake-like but glowing with the dark light that characterized her aspect. 

“What are you?” the alien whispered, but Toni only stared at him, eyes boring holes into him as she dropped the fierce smile, letting her cold rage show on her face.

“Something you should not have crossed,” Toni snarled, letting the _millenia_ fill her voice, knowing it sounded entirely _inhuman_ and _other_, but unable to find it within her rage-filled mind to care. With a flick of her mind, the shadows started to _burn_ and the alien screamed. Toni let it last for just a moment before striding forward, the rage in her heart sated to the slightest degree by his pain, and she reached out an armored hand to touch the alien’s chest gently, closing her eyes as she _tugged_ his soul straight into the too-merciful grip of Death.

He crumpled without another sound, and Toni only smiled cruelly down at him, holding his disgusting grey-green soul aloft in her hand. With a thought, she banished it to her Underworld, vowing to deal with him later - _personally_. 

A moment passed, and Toni forced herself to breathe, relinquishing her hold on the shadows and allowing her aspect and its associated dark glow to fade, attempting to return herself to something that could at least _resemble_ mortal personhood.

“Stark?” a wary voice called, and her eyes snapped open, alert as they would always be for that voice, however hard she tried to suppress it.

Quickly, Toni forced herself down, forced her aspect to bury itself again, forced herself to appear at least semi-mortal, hiding behind her asshole persona and pasting a cool, self-assured smile on her face as she took in Stephanie’s crumpled form, the woman having fallen once the alien’s magic was no longer holding her aloft. Stephanie was pushing herself to her knees as Toni strode over to place herself in the sorceress’s line of sight. 

“Strange. Fancy meeting you here,” she said blasély, coming to a stop, arms clasped behind her back. Stephanie stood shakily, though she met Toni’s eyes with an unimpressed raise of her eyebrow, cloak settling around her shoulders entirely unruffled and frankly entirely-too judgmental for what it knew.

“What the hell was that?” she demanded, and Toni arched an eyebrow.

“Me saving your ass?” she suggested flippantly with a smirk, calling upon millennia of practice of playing this role. As long as she was able to control the instinctual innuen – “No need to thank me, by the way. It was too fine an ass to let slip by so easily.”

Oops. Okay, yeah, maybe she was a little rusty with that kind of control.

Thankfully, Stephanie just raised a brow in return. “I’m afraid you have to be this tall to ride this ride, Stark,” she responded drily, holding a hand up significantly above Toni’s admittedly-depressingly small height.

Toni glared at her, eyes narrowing. “I guess you _would_ have to measure your suitors by height instead of intellect – otherwise, their combined IQs would be too low to count as an actual _standard_.”

“Calling yourself a suitor already, _Iron Queen_?” the other woman sniffed, turning away, though not before Toni caught a hint of red around her cheeks. “Should I be flattered to be pursued by royalty?”

“Only because that royalty is _me_, princess,” Toni couldn’t help but quip back. 

Strange rolled her eyes, though the redness didn’t disappear from her face, before meeting Toni’s gaze challengingly. “Don’t suppose you can get us home, _Your Highness_.”

Toni suppressed both the part of herself that shivered at her Persephone referring to her as such and the part of herself that hurt that the endearment was so scornfully stated, turning her eyes to the ship’s command and raking her gaze over it consideringly. 

“Stark?” Stephanie prompted after a moment of silence.

“Strange?” Toni mocked, unable to help but tease.

Stephanie ground her teeth. “Are you able to fly this and take us home?” she questioned, and Toni shrugged, pretending at nonchalance even as her mind whirled.

“Are you certain that I _should_?” she asked finally, mind running the calculations, and she only turned to face Stephanie at her intake of breath.

“What do you mean?” she asked sharply, and Toni paused, allowing the weight of her concern to show on her face.

“If we return home, Thanos will come to us and millions will die,” she said softly, meeting her love’s eyes. “That’s the only way I can see this going down. He knows there are Stones on Earth, and he’s going to come for them one way or another, likely after he has a few of the other Stones and will be difficult to defeat. But if we take the fight to _him_…”

She trailed off, knowing that Life would fill in the blanks; sure, they couldn’t guarantee that millions wouldn’t die just by taking the fight to him – but it would give them a better chance than if they let Thanos accumulate more power before facing him. They could put up a fight when Thanos was least expecting it and maybe, _maybe_ catch him off guard enough to win.

And, if they knew they couldn’t win, then perhaps Thanos had already obtained the Stone that belonged to Death, and Toni could either take it back from him or dissolve it herself. 

It was a long shot, _all_ of it was – but if it could save so many, they had to try.

“Alright, Stark. Let’s see where this takes us.”

Of course their plans were derailed in an unexpected and, frankly, _weird_ way.

The quote-unquote “Guardians of the Galaxy” ambushed them when they arrived on Titan, so confident that they knew who they faced, spitting venom about those who had wronged them and those they’d take down in battle.

And as much as Toni understood that need for vengeance, no matter how righteous their claim may be, she found it petty, _silly_ even, that they believed they held the ultimate claim to his head. For they were not the only ones who had lost family to Thanos’s hand; even Toni herself could make a tangential claim, her JARVIS having been sacrificed in the Mind Stone’s bid for power from the very scepter Thanos had sent with Loki to take her planet. The Guardians, well-intentioned as they may be, grated on her nerves in their brash, demanding conviction that they were _owed_ their due in a pound of Thanos’s flesh, coming off very much like _another_ group of people who had refused to listen to her and demanded what they believed to be their due to the detriment of others.

And then these _Guardians_ had to stretch her silently acknowledged parallels to the Rogues by completely ignoring her plan.

“Still think it was a good idea to bring the fight to Thanos?” Stephanie muttered after the strange-looking girl stated that their purpose was to ‘kick names, take ass.’ The sorceress’s cloak fluttered agitatedly, and Toni shot her a bemused look.

“I admit I wasn’t expecting such..._interesting_ company,” Toni murmured back, delighting in the conspiratorial smirk Stephanie shot her.

Right. Super important battle against a crazy alien overlord. Time to focus. She forced herself to look away from Stephanie, clearing her throat, to Stephanie’s obvious bemusement.

Finally, the Guardians seemed to realize they were out of their depth here, grumbling but moving into positions as Toni directed – and not a moment too soon.

He stepped out of a cloud of greys and blues that flickered with unconcealed power and instability. Toni wasn’t sure what she’d expected but she couldn’t find herself to be surprised by the large, built _Titan_ whose stature spoke of coiled, dangerous _strength_ and knowledge of how to use it, covered in what could only be classified as armor of a sort, golden gauntlet gleaming on his left hand. Even from across the ruins, Toni could see _her Stone_ glistening in the gauntlet’s setting.

He looked around for a moment, intelligent eyes scanning – but Stephanie made his sweep unnecessary.

“Oh yeah,” she commented drolly from where she was seated silhouetted against a broken building. She was the picture of casual uncaring, headed tilted and legs crossed primly, the cape rippling protectively around her. “You’re much more of a Thanos.”

Toni had fought her tooth and nail on this, insisting that she should be there too, that Stephanie should not face Thanos alone, even if she wasn’t truly alone – but Stephanie had gotten right back in her face, one unimpressed eyebrow raised and saying coolly that if Toni thought herself incapable of protecting her while only a few steps away, that this whole venture was pointless anyway, pointing out that Toni would be of much more use as a sneak attack should Thanos strike than standing uselessly at her side. And Toni, well...there had only ever been one person who could successfully argue against her, that could make her fold like a paper napkin.

So here they were, with Toni concealed behind a ship, monitoring the interaction with a ferocious intensity.

Thanos glanced to the side, then back to Stephanie. “I take it Maw is dead?” Thanos inquired rhetorically, and Stephanie didn’t even bother to respond. “This day extracts a heavy toll.” _Yeah, thanks to you, jackass_, Toni thought fiercely, but had enough sense not to say aloud. Though, as Thanos started striding towards Stephanie, she was hard-pressed to remain silent. “Still, he accomplished his mission,” Thanos continued, eyeing the Eye of Agamotto with a sort of predatory hunger. Stephanie noticed but didn’t react obviously, though Toni noted her knuckles whitening slightly, as though she’d clenched her hands to prevent them from flying protectively to the Stone.

“You may regret that,” she warned instead, looking fearlessly into Thanos’s eyes. “He brought you face-to-face with a master of the mystic arts.”

Thanos continued his approach, uncowed. “And where do you think he brought you?”

Stephanie pursed her lips, unimpressed. “Let me guess,” she said, tone almost bored. “Your home?”

Thanos came to a stop in front of her, looking out over the ruins with a sort of nostalgia that Toni wanted to smack from his face. “It was,” he said, almost wistfully, clenching his gauntleted fist. The Reality Stone glowed red, and green overtook the desolate scenery, the buildings repaired and standing strong and proud, people milling about unconcernedly. “And it was beautiful. Titan was like most planets: too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution.”

“Genocide,” Stephanie spat, and now her eyes flashed, the emotions that surged through Life unable to be concealed at such blatant disregard for Her subjects.

“But random,” Thanos amended, almost admonishingly, as though _Stephanie_ was the foolish one. “Dispassionate and fair, rich and poor alike. They called me a madman.” _Can’t imagine why, bag of cats_, Toni thought sardonically. “And what I predicted came to pass.” The scenery restored itself, ruins returning to their rightful places.

“Congratulations, you’re a prophet,” Stephanie riposted, tone dripping with derision.

“I’m a survivor.”

“Who wants to murder trillions.”

“With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers,” Thanos said with a kind of reverence, demonstrating. “And they would all cease to exist. I call that _mercy_.”

Jesus motherfucking Christ, this guy was _insane_. There would be no reasoning with him, of that Toni was certain. Madmen who believed their rhetoric as Thanos clearly did would not be swayed by logic – or by emotional pleas. He was set on his path, and all that would stop him was physical force. 

Stephanie stood, stepping towards the madman, and every instinct in Toni was screaming at her to _stop her Persephone right there_, but she pushed it down, biting her lip and making herself _wait_. “Then what?” Stephanie demanded.

“I finally rest,” Thanos said, a wistful tone to his voice, as though he was describing a simple nap instead of recovery from sending trillions of people into Toni’s domain. “Watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. Hope that She has finally returned and taken notice of me and will accept my courtship at last.”

_That_ drew Stephanie up short – and Toni frowned in confusion, the words unexpected but also picking at a memory from years before, something...something someone had told her, something... Loki, perhaps, had said something along those lines?

But before she could parse it out, Stephanie was already questioning the Titan. “She? You’re courting someone?”

Thanos smiled, his eyes unfocused as he stared into the distance. “Not yet,” he admitted with a trace of heartache and sadness that seemed so out-of-place on a being this dangerous. “I’m trying. I’m hoping that she will notice this gift I’m giving her and come find me at last.”

Stephanie blinked, brow wrinkling in confusion as she tried to untangle that statement. “What gift?” she finally settled on asking blankly. 

Thanos gaze refocused on her, his expression one that conveyed that he thought her incredibly slow. “The gift of the lives of half the universe.”

Stephanie’s eyes widened, and Toni frowned, a sort of horrified precognition worming its way to the surface as Loki’s words drifted through her mind at last, fitting into a disturbing picture that she desperately hoped she was wrong about. _He has long awaited your return, Lady Death_.

But Stephanie didn’t know, didn’t understand what he could be referring to. “You’re telling me your girlfriend _asked_ you to kill half the universe?”

Now Thanos was outright glaring at Stephanie, and it was only the pit in Toni’s stomach that kept her feet planted rather than racing to get between that look and her Life. “She did not, but she does not _have_ to. What else would you gift Mistress Death with than trillions more subjects for her to rule?”

And that? That was something Toni couldn’t let stand. Something within her snapped, her dismay and horror making way for fury and anger.

Striding out from her hiding spot, Toni allowed her mortal guise to fall, her millennia of existence to show, her _Death_ to rise to the surface, the armor discarded with barely a thought as her true armor, the attire of the Queen of the Dead, rose to the surface. Her dress of shadows wound its way around her, the latticework of the armored breastplate settling into place, followed swiftly by the writhing grey shadows that comprised her skirts, the circlet of bone weaving itself around her head. 

“Nearly anything else, you imbecile,” Death snapped as she stalked towards the object of her ire, the very air around her darkening, crackling with the intensity of her power and fury.

She heard a shocked inhaled breath and a whispered “_Stark_” from where Life was stationed, but she ignored it, her glare focused on the Titan she was striding towards. A Titan who was looking both awed and thrilled, eyes raking over her reverently as she came to a stop before him.

“Mistress Death,” he near-whispered. “You have returned.”

_”Wait, did he just say Mistress Death?”_

_“The mortal is the Death goddess?”_

_“I did not think the avatar of Death would be so small.”_

_“That must be why she feels so sad.” _

The comments certainly gave away the presence of the Guardians, but Death could not bring herself to care overly-much – after all, the fault for the revelation that Life was not alone was Death’s, and the Titan, it appeared, did not appear to be paying attention to anything but Death at the present anyway. 

“I have,” Death said, her voice cold, though the Titan appeared not to notice, still staring at her rapturously.

“And you have noticed my courtship,” he continued, appearing almost hypnotized by her, eyes drinking her in.

“I have,” Death responded, voice growing ever colder as the air around her _flexed_. “Though you may soon wish that I had not.” It was at this point that the Titan finally appeared to notice her displeasure, and he blinked, confusion crossing his face.

“My Queen, I merely sought to give you that which you desire – “ he started, the first traces of uncertainty lacing his voice, and Death cut him off.

“You presume to know what I desire, Titan, when your actions show that you haven’t the faintest _idea_,” she hissed, and the shadows curled around her in response. The Titan started to look properly alarmed now. “I _am_ Death – if I wanted half the universe to die, _I could make it so myself_. Tell me, Titan: if there is something I could do myself and I have not done it, would not the proper conclusion be that I do not want it done?” Her voice grew progressively silkier by the end, dangerous in its saccharine sweetness, but, instead of appearing increasingly frightened, the Titan’s expression was giving way more to _confusion_.

“But, my Queen, _why_ would you not wish for me to do this for you?” he questioned, voice almost bewildered as his eyes met hers searchingly. “You are one half of the forces that keep balance in the universe – and I am helping balance the universe in a way that also provides you more subjects. Surely you see the merits of my courting gift?”

And Death simply raised an eyebrow, surprised by the convoluted logic presented but still overwhelmingly _not impressed_. “You ignore what I have said – if I believed the universe to be unbalanced, I could fix it _myself_. I haven’t because I don’t.” The Titan opened his mouth to argue but snapped it shut when Death held up one silencing hand and gave him an equally silencing _look_. “And even if I did, it _would not be your place to do so_. Nor would I _ever_ condone doing so in this manner. Life and Death are their own dance and forcing so many to my realms before their time is _not_ an acceptable way to balance the universe.”

Now the Titan was staring at her with an inscrutable look on his face, and Death’s eyes narrowed as she started to wonder if he had heard her words and drawn an incorrect conclusion somewhere along the line. “Then how would you balance it, Mistress?” the Titan asked quietly, his expression strange and weighted. Death felt unease curl in her chest as tendrils of concern unfurled themselves, wondering what misapprehension he’d stolen from her words. Still, he had asked a question that she could truthfully answer.

“If I believed Life was becoming threatened by confinement to spaces too small for its growth? I would not send trillions to their deaths prematurely – I would have new spaces made so that that growth could be impinged no further,” she responded, and the Titan’s eyes flashed – and Death knew with a feeling of foreboding that something she had said had caused the Titan to draw the wrong conclusion.

“I see,” he said softly, his eyes melting, the confusion and fear giving way to a gentle reverence once more. He reached out, and his un-gauntleted hand caressed her cheek before she could do more than stare at its approach in shock. _No one_ touched Death without her explicit permission – not when they understood who and what she was, as the Titan did. The Titan’s voice drew her gaze away from where his palm cupped her cheek and back to his eyes, which were staring at her with such compassionate understanding that Death couldn’t mask her bafflement. The Titan seemed to notice, for he smiled softly. “They have tamed you, my Queen,” he told her, conviction coloring his voice, and Death jolted in his hand, attempting to draw back, but he simply tsked and shifted the hand that had been resting against her cheek to slide to the back of her neck and pull her closer.

Death’s horrified fascination mingled with shock prevented her from doing anything other than staring at him in increasing perplexity. He seemed not to notice, sympathy coating his expression as he gazed into her eyes. “They have made you believe that the best way to balance the universe is to allow more _life_. But you are _Death_, my love. You have only forgotten your due.”

Death made to interrupt him, but he shook his head, and now _she_ was the one who fell silent at the gesture, though it was due more to complete bafflement than any sort of intimidation on the Titan’s part.

He gazed down at her kindly, eyes swimming with what might have looked like love but that she identified to be more akin to feverish obsession. “I will remind you, my darling. And then we can finally be happy together.”

She opened her mouth to respond, protest, _pound_ her truths into his head – but what came out instead was a choked-off scream – 

A _scream_ as piercing metal entered her abdomen, going deeper, deeper, _deeper_ until she could feel it come out the other side. She looked down, seeing the glowing red of the Reality stone inches away from where the gauntlet had extended, had lengthened, thrice-accursed godsteel piercing her. She could _feel_ where Death’s armor had receded, where the armor she’d crafted in this lifetime had taken its place after her power had drained from her, had not been enough to stop the steel that even godly skin could not halt. She would heal, yes – but not in time for the fight that she _knew_ must be coming. Not in time to stop him. Eyes wide, she looked met Thanos’s eyes, who was staring at her tenderly.

“I’m sorry, my love, but it had to be done,” he told her, voice gentle and eyes regretful. “I cannot fight against you, and I must gather the remaining stones to restore you to your former glory.”

“No, that’s not – “ Toni choked out, power draining steadily from her as the godsteel took its effect, her shadows flickering once, twice, disappearing as her control failed under the steel’s influence. 

“Shhh, sweet one. I will return you to your true self once again. Our reign shall be glorious.” And with that particularly horrific pronouncement, he slid her off the end of his sword, her body spasming at the sharp, painful, _tearing_ sensation, before laying her down gently on the hard ground and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. “I will make you proud, my sweet Lady Death.”

And then he was standing, stalking away with a purpose that _terrified_ Toni.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh this chapter was a fucking _battle_. Hope it reads okay.
> 
> In order, the italicized reactions of the Guardians to hearing Toni is Death were Quill, Nebula, Drax, then Mantis, in case there was any curiosity. 
> 
> Side note that I deeeefinitely do not dislike the Guardians, I love them with my whole heart. I just figured for this fic Toni might notice some less-than-flattering similarities to how the Rogues treated her since that was still really recent for her.
> 
> So. Godsteel. I will 100% admit that it’s something I’m using to try to make the Titan scene happen at least sort of close to IW canon. I wanted this fic to include both IW and EG, and honestly Toni’s too badass to _not_ stop Thanos on Titan unless there was something that took her out preemptively. So. Godsteel happened. It may or may not be loosely based on Celestial bronze from Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Don’t judge me. Basically the premise for it is that it’s the only thing that can really harm a full-on god, and it weakens both their powers and their healing abilities until such time as the wound has healed. For Toni, that healing time was greatly shortened by the fact that trillions of people died and gave her a huuuuuuge boost in her powers, enough that ‘weakening’ her powers/healing meant that she was able to heal herself and use her powers again in like 10 seconds rather than 2. Idk yall I’m doing my best.
> 
> Yeah so this chapter was supposed to cover loooooads more. I'm sorry to leave it at such a cliffhanger, but if I'd gone any further with it I would've had to finish the entire original plan for the chapter and it would've ended up being way longer and probably would't get out to you guys for a while longer, so I figured this might be the better option. Hope you're still enjoying, thanks for your patience.


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